Topaz and Numby, Guinaifen join Honkai Star Rail roster on October 27

Two new characters are boarding the Honkai Star Rail playable roster on October 27, 2023. Topaz & Numby, a pair unit introduced in Honkai Star Rail's version 1.4 story update, and Guinaifen, a Xianzhou performance artist, will be added via Star Rail's gacha "Warp" banner. The two represent the second half of the version 1.4 content roadmap, and their addition will herald a number of limited-time events, as well.

HoYoVerse also introduced the characters via a series of posts on the HoYoLab community site. The posts outline the characters' profiles and combat characteristics.

HoYoVerse also posted a faux-promotional video for the Interastral Peace Corporation (Topaz's home organization) on its official YouTube channel:

Topaz is a senior manager for the Strategic Investment Department of the Interastral Peace Corporation, the interstellar conglomerate whose tendrils reach into virtually every aspect of life in Honkai Star Rail's galaxy. She played a major role in the version 1.4 story update, when she headed a team of IPC employees attempting to convince the citizens of Belobog to effectively sell their planet to the IPC to help begin the process of rebuilding it - and settle an outstanding 700-year-old loan from the corporation.

Topaz joins the roster with her buddy Numby, a specially trained Warp Trotter that aids her in battle and in sniffing out investment opportunities. She is a 5-Star Hunt character of the Fire element, and is notable for the way she uses Numby in combat. When entering combat, Numby joins the turn order as a separate unit, launching follow-up attacks and dealing fire damage to enemies. Topaz can "mark" enemies with "Proof of Debt", a debuff that increases the damage they take from follow-up attacks. The pair's Ultimate attack makes a line go up, increasing Numby's critial damage and causing Numby to hit harder and more often.

Guinaifen is a performance artist based on the Xianzhou Luofu, though she isn't native to the ship and is in fact a huge fan of Xianzhou culture. Her real name is actually Guinevere, but her friend Sushang gave her a Xianzhou-style name. She's a 4-Star Fire-element Nihility character, and can use her skills to inflict the Burn effect. Her skill can inflict Burn on multiple enemies, and her Ultimate attack summons a trio of animatronic lions to deal Fire damage to all enemies and inflict Burn. Enemies that are already Burning get hit for even more damage. With her emphasis on the Burn damage-over-time effect, Guinaifen may be a good fit for teams based around Kafka, a 5-Star character introduced in version 1.2. Kafka's toolkit revolves around squeezing huge amounts of damage out of DOT effects present on enemies.

Besides the new character banners, will also launch a new temporary event based on Honkai Star Rail's Simulated Universe game mode. Called "Planar Infinity", it involves players challenging new planes of existence in the Simulated Universe for rewards and items. Planar Infinity kicks off on October 27, 2023. At the start of November, players seeking

Honkai Star Rail is available on PC, PS5, and mobile devices. The Topaz & Numby banners go live on October 27, 2023. Guinaifen will be present on Topaz's banner as a featured 4-Star unit, and will also be available on Seele's banner, which will get a rerun at the same time.